Marriage migration, transnational couples and their families

Marriage distance is the geographical aspect of marriage circle. Marriage circle means that one group of people marry specific persons from specific areas or with special socioeconomic characteristics. Both unbalance sex structure of population and female's superiority in marriage migration lead to a very serious male marriage squeeze under the background of unequal development between urban and rural in China. As female marriage migration, some rural males have to expand their marriage distance and they have to marry brides from the places much longer than before. Using 2010 Survey of Seven Provinces' Family Structure and Intergenerational Relation data, the change of marriage distance in rural from 1979-2010 is analyzed. The findings are as follows. First, marriage distance is enlarged, especially after 2005. Second, males' marriage distance is shorter than females' in general while both males' and females' marriage distance are expanded. Third, the experiences of labor migration and high education have positive relation with marriage distance expansion. Macro socioeconomic institution change including marriage institution change caused the transition of field, relation and capital for rural population marriage behavior, which in turn lead to marriage distance change at last.

The main purpose of this paper is to explore socio-demographic differentials and peer effects on fertility among foreign wives in Korea. Attention is focused on examining the effects of the number of foreign wives and the ethnic composition of residential area on the level and tempo of fertility of foreign wives. Favorable ethnic composition of the residential area and increased accessibility to other foreign wives are likely to reduce the real or perceived social disadvantages, constraints and insecurities of foreign wives that might otherwise lead to lower fertility. Another question to be examined is whether and to what extent foreign wives show distinctive levels of fertility according to household composition. Micro-data from the 2009 Korean National Multi-culture Family Survey and Marriage and Divorce Registration Data for 2009-2011 are analyzed. Preliminary results of the analysis show that the ethnic composition environment exerts an independent effect on fertility, apart from socioeconomic and demographic variables. Propensity to have children ceteris paribus rises substantially among foreign wives who live in an area with a large population of transnational couples. Peer effects tend to be stronger when a foreign wife lives with her husband’s parents. Further evidence is found to be consistent with peer effects.

Korean society has experienced a fast growing international cross-border marriage during the past decades. A large group of young women from Southeast Asian countries, who resides in Korea as workers and brides, also have received increasing attention from scholars and policy makers as marriage immigrants have emerged as an important social issue in contemporary Korean society. From the 1990s, a steady increase in the visibility of immigrant foreign spouses and immigrant laborers in Korea have an unsettling effect on the long-held image of a perceived homogeneity of Korean society. This study tries to analyze important phenomena current in the up-surging international marriages in South Korea. First, it examines the recent trend in the state of marriage-based immigrants and their families. Second, the study seeks to delineate their basic socio-cultural needs by analyzing data collected by a nationwide sample survey conducted in 2006 by three sociologists, Drs, Seol, D.H., Lee, H.K. and Cho, S.N. under the grant from the Ministry of Gender Equalities in South Korea. The study thus tries to capture actual living conditions of marriage-based immigrants and their families in Korea, focusing on those factors deemed to be a prerequisite for long term policy measures toward their successful social integration

The author previously proposed a model of the quantitative distinction between hypergamy and hypogamy in international marriage. In this model, hypergamy means marriage to a foreign bride from a less developed country and to a foreign groom from a more developed country; whereas hypogamy means the other types of marriage. This study modifies the model by applying it to the latest statistics of Japan and Korea.
The previous model consists of some equations that represent the following three laws on marriage between an arbitrary pair of countries. (1) If the hypergamy-hypogamy ratio is defined as the quotient of the numbers of hypergamies and hypogamies, the ratio in one country equals approximately to that in the other country; (2) The ratio is scarcely influenced by short-term reduction of the economic difference between the two countries, although the ratio should theoretically approach to 1.0 if the difference almost disappears; (3) The economic difference may control the total amount of marriages between the two countries.
The result of the application allows us to conclude as follows: the law (1) is strongly supported; as regards the law (2), the ratio is influenced by medium and long-term reduction of the economic difference; the law (3) should be carefully examined using other data.